SW Main Street.
(Photo © J. Maus)
Local activist and founder of Crank My Chain! Cycle TV Dan Kaufman is organizing a bike ride from Southeast Portland to show support for Occupy Portland.
Kaufman is encouraging interested folks to “occupy your bicycle” and ride to this Friday’s meeting of the General Assembly that takes place in Terry Schrunk Plaza (across from City Hall). Kaufman’s ride is part of a larger idea/effort he’s putting together dubbed “Occupy Wall Street/Liberate Main Street.”
In a nutshell, Kaufman wants to plug into the Occupy movement in order to spur more citizen activism around transportation justice issues (such as the continued government subsidy of automobiles and influence of Big Oil on our national politics).
Kaufman also wants the ride to honor Veterans Day and he’s encouraging folks to decorate bikes with American flags, “to help remind folks that human power and citizen involvement/protest are patriotic actions.” The ride will end at the General Assembly because Kaufman, who has visited the encampment many times in the last month, says that’s “the soul and brains of the movement.”
Kaufman put together a video message about the ride and his thoughts on the Occupy movement…
Join Dan and others at Colonel Summers Park (SE 20th and Belmont) tomorrow at 5:45 (more info here).
As I shared last month, I think there’s a natural synergy between the Occupy movement and many of the issues transportation activists frequently come up against.
— In other Occupy Portland news, Mayor Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese are having a press conference today where many people expect them to issue a deadline for the encampment to end.